The Systematic Devaluation of Life in America
23 August 2018 (11:17 am)
Prague, Czech Republic
Donald Trump on Mollie Tibbetts' Death
Prologue
It has been my long held belief that America has run its course and is now a failing state. An analogy that I think works well is that of the Titanic. There was a period after the iceberg was spotted but before the iceberg was struck where everything appeared fine, however, the tragedy was inevitable. No amount of rudder or reversing of engines could prevent what was about to happen. America is in a similar situation; we live in a time where all seems, at least relatively, normal, but the future is fixed and its tragic fate appears to be unavoidable.
Exploitation of a Tragic Death
One sign of decadence is the devaluation of human life. In this case the devaluation took the form of an old man using the death of a young woman to further his political career and divert attention from his own personal failings. By turning her life and tragic death into political meat for his base, he devalued her life to an extend that rivaled the person who killed her.
Trump Speaking in Charleston, West Virginia
As for the those at the Charleston, West Virginia palaver that feasted on the meat he threw out to them, they also did their part to devalue her life. The decadence of one man is not enough to threaten America, on the other hand, a decadent political party and a decadent electorate is much more than enough.
A few days before, in the nearby state of Colorado, another tragic story unfolded. In this case an affluent white father had killed is wife and kids. However, to Trump, their lives had less value than Mollie Tibbetts because they were not killed by an immigrant who was in America illegally. The names of Shanann Watts, Bella Watts (age 4), and Celeste Watts (age 3) could not be used to whip a mob into a frenzied chorus of "Build the Wall," because Chris Watts is just too white and just too American.
The Republican party, represented by people like Rick Santorum (on Anderson Cooper), is desperately hoping that they can use the tragic death of a young woman in Idaho to divert attention from the worst, yet most inevitable, president in American history. The debauchery manifest in Trump and his party are revolting to the eye, so they used the untimely death of Mollie Tibbetts, at the hands of an immigrant, to make us look away. I'm sad to say, I think most Americans will look away, which is why I think America's randevu with its iceberg is inevitable.
